Bookings – resources and events

With bookings, customers can reserve a place on something you offer: an hour in the play park, a place on a course or a table at an event. Customers book themselves in the webshop, and you can sell and check in bookings at the till. The setup has two parts: areas (how many places you have, and when) and activities (what the customer actually books).

Before you start

• You need the «Opprette og redigere aktiviteter, ressurser, åpningstider og stengninger» (Create and edit activities, resources, opening hours and closures) permission.
• The location (shop) must exist in Cmerce.
• If customers are to pay when booking, at least one payment method must be switched on for the webshop.

How to do it

1. Create an area

An area is a pool of capacity at a location – "X places at the same time".

1. Go to «Booking» → «Områder» (Areas) and create a new one.
2. Choose the «Lokasjon» (Location) and enter a «Navn» (Name).
3. Fill in «Kapasitet (antall plasser samtidig)» (Capacity, places at the same time) and any clean-up time between bookings.
4. Under «Åpningstider» (Opening hours), enter when the area can be booked. Several rows on the same day give split opening hours. No rows at all means "always open".
5. Save.

2. Create an activity

1. Go to «Booking» → «Aktiviteter» (Activities) and create a new one.
2. Choose «Ressurs (kapasitetspott)» (Resource, capacity pool) – the area the activity uses – and give the activity a name.
3. Choose the «Type»:
   • «Tidsluke (f.eks. lekepark)» (Time slot, e.g. play park) – fills the opening hours with time slots automatically.
   • «Arrangement (enkelt/gjentakende)» (Event, single/recurring) – specific times.
4. Set «Varighet (minutter)» (Duration, minutes) and «Bookingmodus» (Booking mode): «Faste tidspunkt» (Fixed times) or «Fleksibel» (Flexible), where the customer picks a start time and the system prevents overbooking.
5. Under «Pris» (Price), fill in «Pris per plass (kr)» (Price per place) and choose the «Avgiftsklasse» (Tax class, i.e. VAT rate). An empty price means free. You can add lower «Medlemspriser» (Member prices) for a customer group.
6. Under «Når kan det bookes?» (When can it be booked?), choose whether the activity repeats («Hver dag», every day; «Hver uke», every week) with start times, or happens once.
7. Under «Synlighet» (Visibility), decide whether the activity is «Synlig i nettbutikk» (Visible in webshop) and «Selgbar i kassen» (Sellable at the till).
8. Save.

You can also add «Egendefinerte felt» (Custom fields – questions the customer answers, such as the child's name or allergies) and «Prisregler» (Price rules) that change the price based on the answers or the customer group.

3. Keep track of bookings

• «Booking» → «Kalender» (Calendar) shows all bookings in calendar form.
• «Booking» → «Alle bookinger» (All bookings) shows the list. Here you can «Bekreft booking» (Confirm booking), «Sjekk inn» (Check in), mark as «No-show», «Avbestill» (Cancel – with an option to refund automatically) and «Åpne ordre» (Open order).

Customers find your activities on the booking page in the webshop.

Booking settings

Under «Innstillinger» (Settings) → «Tjenester» (Services) → «Booking» you set defaults for all activities, including:

• minimum notice and how far ahead customers can book,
• how long a place is held while the customer pays,
• «Stengt på norske helligdager» (Closed on Norwegian public holidays),
• whether paid bookings are charged at purchase or only reserved,
• cancellation: whether customers can cancel themselves, the deadline, and whether refunds are automatic,
• no-shows and reminders.

Most of these can be overridden per area and per activity.

Good to know

• Closures: Under «Booking» → «Stengninger» (Closures) you can close a location, an area or an activity for a period, for example during holidays. This is also where you add «Spesialåpning» (Special opening) and «Endret kapasitet» (Changed capacity).
• No-show rules: Under «Booking» → «No-show-regler» you decide what happens when a customer fails to turn up several times, for example «Send e-post» (Send email), «Sperr online-booking» (Block online booking) or «Krev forhåndsbetaling» (Require prepayment).
• Member benefits: Under «Booking» → «Medlemsfordeler» (Member benefits) you can give free or discounted bookings to customers with a particular subscription, product or customer group.
• Charge at purchase: If «Belast ved kjøp» is switched off, the amount is only reserved, and you charge later, for example on arrival.
• Punch cards can be used to pay for bookings. See Punch cards.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an area and an activity?

The area is the physical place and how many it holds. The activity is what the customer books. Several activities can share the same area, and then they also share its capacity.

Can an activity have its own capacity?

Yes. Under «Kapasitet og deltakere» (Capacity and participants), choose «Egen for denne aktiviteten» (Own for this activity) instead of «Arv fra ressurs» (Inherit from resource).